Daily Archives: August 18, 2011

Washington Times: The Homeland Security Department said Thursday it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria such as attending school, having family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care.

AP: President Barack Obama has signed an executive order directing the federal government to design a new strategy for hiring, promoting and keeping workers of diverse backgrounds. | The Executive Order

The Washington Post: Exxon Mobil Corp. and the federal government are fighting over one of the largest oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico that could yield billions of dollars of crude in coming years, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona and the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence (AzCADV) have filed a First Amendment challenge to an Arizona law that would exclude any nonprofit organization that provides abortion referrals or counseling from receiving donations through the state’s Working Poor Tax Credit Program. This law is part of a larger trend nationwide to punish those organizations that support women’s reproductive decisionmaking. | Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence vs. Arizona Department of Revenue (complaint)

Terence Jeffrey at Human Events: By the end of September, when fiscal 2011 ends, House Speaker John Boehner must answer a simple yet profound question: Will he lead a Republican-controlled House of Representatives in enacting government funding bills for fiscal 2012 that allow tax dollars to flow to a group that kills an average of 910 unborn babies per day? Boehner ought to say: No way. Case closed.

David French at National Review Online: While I very much appreciate Janet Morana’s compassionate words regarding the “fear and powerlessness” many women feel when faced with a multiple pregnancy, I’m afraid the issue is much more about self-indulgence.

British Pakistani Christian Association (8 min. video): Whatever they are now doing, let us pray for the little girl featured in this video and her family. When her father refused to convert to Islam, his 2 year old girl was raped so badly that she has been maimed for life.

BBC News: A man who is almost completely paralysed is taking legal action in a bid to end his life. His solicitors have told the BBC that they believe his case could have major implications for the way prosecutors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland deal with assisted suicides.

Telegraph: The survey of 4,000 women in the continent’s five largest countries found that 76 per cent of Italian housewives were dissatisfied with their lives . . . half of Italian women said they regretted getting married and two-thirds regretted having children.

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Gay-rights and civil-liberties groups pushed for more comment after the board action, arguing that state law requires more time for input if the changes have “substantial impact” and at least 25 people ask the board for a chance to comment.

Hudson New York: Islamic mosques are being built more often in France than Roman Catholic churches, and there now are more practising Muslims in the country than practising Catholics. Nearly 150 new mosques currently are under construction in France, home to the biggest Muslim community in Europe.

LifeNews.com: he Susan B. Anthony List has filed an appeal in the Sixth Circuit Court on the constitutionality of an obscure elections law a Democrat is using to try to silence the pro-life organization.

Nathan A. Cherry at Engage Family Minute: I did find some common ground with Ms. Krasnow when she said “You can leave each other…But once you have children, you can’t leave the marriage… it becomes bigger than you.” The best thing, the things worth fighting for are always bigger than we are. Anything smaller than us is not worth our time.

ADF Attorney Bryan Beauman at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Starting this school year, Indiana offers Hoosier families a sweeping variety of school choice options. Despite recent efforts by the state’s largest teachers’ union, those options remain in place pursuant to a ruling Monday.

ADF Attorney Brian Raum at SCOTUSblog: Brian Raum, Senior Counsel and head of marriage litigation at the Alliance Defense Fund, argues that the litigation strategy of those supporting same-sex marriage should pay heed to the narrow scope of the Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas.

Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy: Over at Inside the Law School Scam, the anonymous “Lawprof” has some interesting posts, here and here, on why law school tuitions have grown so much over the last 20 to 30 years. I agree with some of it, but I wonder if it’s also missing a significant part of the picture: The combined role of rising law firm salaries and readily-available student loans.

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy: . . . The best policy arguments are generally ones that go beyond the abstract, and tie the abstract arguments to concrete realities of how people act (and how the law operates) . . .

Religion Clause: The Commission adopted the view of the state attorney general that the use of religious documents or texts in a public charter school classroom would violate Art. IX, Sec. 6 of the Idaho Constitution. | Nampa Classical Academy v. Goesling, (9th Cir., Aug. 15, 2011)

Austrian Independent : Conservative opinion leaders turned their guns on Social Democratic (SPÖ) Health Minister Alois Stöger earlier this month after he suggested state-funded clinics across the country should provide induced abortions. The left-wing politician claimed women were “not taken seriously” at the moment. Public hospitals in three of the alpine country’s nine provinces were not offering such services.

George Berkin at NJ.com: It turns out that some of the staunchest pro-choice advocates in New Jersey are shocked when adults overseas practice abortion for reasons that make sense there – but which offend the sensibilities of the domestic pro-choice crowd. Specifically, many in Asia are choosing abortion when a fetus is female, because they want sons rather than daughters.

Christian Post: Who is really on the side of women in this whole distorted debate? Well, most Americans aren’t buying the line of the abortion industry. According to Gallup, “majorities of Democrats as well as most Republicans favor informed consent, parental consent, 24-hour waiting periods, and a ban on ‘partial birth abortion.’” The respected polling agency says that 87 percent of respondents favor informing a pregnant woman of the risks of having an abortion.

NY1.com (includes video): With that in mind, the City Council unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to protect employees from religious discrimination . . . The bill aims to require employers to allow employees to take particular days off, times to pray, or wear certain clothes for religious reasons.

The Denver Post: In 2007, the ACLU filed the case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a seven-member panel that issues opinions and recommendations, but has no legal authority to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision.

WFCourier: The Board of Education’s recent decision to invest more than $60,000 into a Cedar Falls church which will house part of the district’s preschool program has caught the attention of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

Amy Alkon on MND: He also contacted the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of conservative Christian lawyers. The alliance told the township it may take the matter to court if officials don’t allow Racaniello to put the cross wherever he wants on his property. “We believe this is private property, and therefore he has a right to engage in this expression,” Jonathan Scruggs, a lawyer for the alliance, said in an interview. “We believe that either cross is protected by the First Amendment.”

The New American: Travis Barham of the Alliance Defense Fund, which was involved in the Georgia case, said that whether the Wilmington college is “promoting denominations or whether they’re promoting individual churches … that’s not the business of a university.”

The Washington Independent: Marriage For Maryland, or Marriage4Maryland, is billed as a “resource of information and action tools to help preserve traditional marriage and protect the people’s right to be represented fairly by their legislators.” . . . Also included on the site is a brochure (PDF) produced by the Alliance Defense Fund that offers guidelines for churches and pastors for how to engage safely in political activities. However, ADF’s brochure offers a caveat, that IRS restriction on churches are unconstitutional . . . [more]

LifeNews.com: The health department in New Hampshire will not reinstate $1.8 million in taxpayer funding revoked earlier this summer by the Executive Council and that will likely cause the abortion business to close or scale back in the Granite State.

Education News: Parents opting out tend to be white and affluent, said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the San Diego County public health officer. Dr. Wooten said she is not surprised the number of personal exemptions is growing. She said parents are weighing fears of allergies and other side effects associated with vaccines, placing more trust in holistic medicine and spacing out shots.

Christine Rose at The New Atlantis: Mobility also continues to erode social institutions. As one writer for the Carnegie Council put it in summarizing the findings of a German research project, “Increased mobility goes hand in hand with increased economic uncertainty, especially among young professionals,” which has led to delays in marriage and childrearing. “Not only are young people less economically able to start a family, but they also change locations more often than ever with the fluidity of labor markets. Spouses or couples are less likely to find appropriate work in the same place.” What was at first the freedom that mobility newly granted us to move about is increasingly becoming an economic necessity.

AP: Pope Benedict XVI denounced the profit-at-all-cost mentality that he says is behind Europe’s current economic crisis as he arrived in hard-hit Spain on Thursday, and said morals and ethics must play a greater role in formulating economic policy in the future.

Review & Outlook: Perry’s Public Service – WSJ.com: ll the world’s right-thinkers are denouncing Rick Perry for suggesting this week that Texans would get “pretty ugly” with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke if he guns the money supply any more between now and the 2012 election. His poor choice of words aside, the Texas Governor is right to put monetary policy front and center in the 2012 Presidential debate.

SCOTUSblog: The Marriage Law Foundation’s William Duncan describes obstacles to U.S. Supreme Court review of the constitutional claim for same-sex marriage and explores the implications of the way these cases seem likely to be presented to the Court.

CNN: President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas. “Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,” Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. “That will happen.”

AP: The Air Force said Wednesday it is discharging a hero of the so-called birther movement who refused to report to duty in Germany for a few days earlier this month because he doubts President Barack Obama’s citizenship.

Fox News Latino: The official federal poverty line is an annual income of up to $22,350 for a family of four. However, it is calculated that, on average, families need double that amount to pay for their basic necessities.